2005 Trailblazer oil change?

I told my girlfriend I'd change the oil on her 2005 trailblazer. Anything weird on these trucks that I should know about before starting the job? It's just a domestic suv, I should be fine, right? I've been changing the oil on my own cars since Ive been driving, but I'm just wondering if I need to do anything special with this one, or if it needs any special tools.

Just did my wife's '03. 15mm plug, filter is kind of hidden but easy to access from the side or through the skid plate hole. Oil will drip onto the skid plate when you remove the filter. Just wipe that off when done.

Official capacity is 7.2 quarts but you'll probably get about 6.5 + filter fill in there unless you take extreme measures to extract the old stuff.

you forgot "profit," but in this scenario, we'll just call it blowjob instead.

LOL at that.

I always work on my relatives' cars. Just the ones that ask. I don't have any d-bags in my family that would blame me because 1) I don't do something I might mess up, and 2) I explain what's going on so they know what I'm doing. I also do what I can on my gf's car because it's not difficult and she trusts me and I get rewarded nicely. Plus her 'family mechanic' is a total quack when it comes to these things and I've seen his work and don't trust him.

I would never work on somebody's car if I don't know them well enough and I don't make friends with people that are d-bag enough to blame me for something I didn't touch.

7qts of 10w-30 oil. I highly recommend one of those jaw-type filter wrenches that goes on the end of a 3/8" ratchet extension, as it's tough to get regular filter pliers on there if it's too tight to just remove by hand.

Other than that, it's straightforward.

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I guess mechanics ALWAYS screw up, since NOTHING but bad things can happen when you work on someone else's car...

I don't mean to say anything will actually get screwed up. I'm saying you risk getting blamed for whatever goes wrong next just for touching their car. I'm just being pessimistic about working on cars for friends and family. There's been threads on here over the years where good deeds went bad when something extra decided to break and unleash a string of issues.
Just wait until OP changes that oil and the check engine light comes on the next day

Originally Posted by phryxis

sprayed it on, waited some time, and proceeded to go at it with a scraper, some pliers, and a lot of f-ing hard work.

I don't mean to say anything will actually get screwed up. I'm saying you risk getting blamed for whatever goes wrong next just for touching their car. I'm just being pessimistic about working on cars for friends and family. There's been threads on here over the years where good deeds went bad when something extra decided to break and unleash a string of issues.
Just wait until OP changes that oil and the check engine light comes on the next day

Never had a problem with that, at least not amongst my friends. But that might be due to them understanding that sh*t happens. Maybe you just need better friends.

Just did my wife's '03. 15mm plug, filter is kind of hidden but easy to access from the side or through the skid plate hole. Oil will drip onto the skid plate when you remove the filter. Just wipe that off when done.

Official capacity is 7.2 quarts but you'll probably get about 6.5 + filter fill in there unless you take extreme measures to extract the old stuff.

Ah, good to know. There's always one of those oil change specials going on at autozone, I think the one right now is something like 19.99 for 5 quarts and a filter, I guess ill have to pick up a couple more.

I know what AKAdriver is saying. I had something similar happen on my gf's (at the time) mother's car. I think I changed the air filter, or something, and then the next day it wouldn't start. A complete coincidence, but she didn't see it that way. I guess correlation does equal causation to her.

It went from "You saved me $40! Thank you!!!" to "Because of you I have to get a new battery!". Whatever, she was a b anyway (gf and her mom).

I now only do work for very, very close family members/friends, and even then, I try to assist them as much as possible and not do all of the work. It's just one less bs thing I have to deal with.

That's all I was saying. Lots of people not in to cars will associate you with everything that goes wrong after you touch it.

well i work at a pepboys so this happens on a daily basis multiple times. all you can do is try your best to explain to the customer the fact that changing rear struts wont cause the front brakes to start grinding (true story)

That's all I was saying. Lots of people not in to cars will associate you with everything that goes wrong after you touch it.

Eeeeeeexactly. If I feel pretty confident that the person "gets it," then I'll help out. But I'm done helping EVERYBODY with their cars.

Case in point, my co-worker is fuming mad about his Harley's cracked rear wheel hub, after he had a shop put a clutch in it last week. He is actually going back to the shop to demand they fix an unrelated failed part.